Page 133 of Creep

“Okay,” he said finally. Softly. “Let's go back.”

I pulled away from his hold and walked back to the cabin without another word.

37

MAEL

I openedthe door to the bedroom and walked inside.

At least she wasn’t trying to keep me out by locking the door or pushing the dresser in front of it to block my way.

As if that could have kept me away from her.

As if there was anything in this world that would have ever kept me away from her.

It was okay because she would learn soon enough that I meant what I said about keeping her. That the only way she would ever escape me was if I stopped breathing.

Given what I did and all the enemies I’d made so far, that was likely to happen sooner rather than later, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to hold on to her for as long as I could.

She was asleep when I got into the room. All the other times, she hadn’t been. She forced herself to stay awake, waiting for me. But that must have taken a toll on her because now, she was fast asleep. I walked over to her side of the bed and took in her small form on the huge king-size bed, feeling something like a fucking fist around my chest, squeezing and squeezing until it was fucking painful.

How was it that she could make me feel like this simply by existing?

It had never been like this with anyone else.

And I had been with other women. I wasn’t exactly celibate over the years. But this?

I climbed into the bed with her, feeling almost angry.

I fucking hated the way she made me feel. I hated how weak I felt under her gaze, as if one look from her and I would simply disintegrate. I hated how she could so easily affect me with a single glance. And I fucking hated how I couldn’t possibly exist in this world if she wasn’t in it.

That time she ran away from me already proved that.

Had Leo done something to her, had something happened, I wouldn’t have been able to move forward.

And she ran from me.

She fucking left.

I fucking hated all these weak feelings she was able to bring out of me, but I didn’t hate her.

Never her.

I wrapped my arms around her middle and pulled her in closer to me, burying my face in her hair and taking in her familiar scent.

My heart calmed.

The anger was pushed away, and all that was left was me and her in this small little bubble, and that was all there was to it.

I held onto her tightly. She didn’t wake up through the night. She must have been more tired than I thought.

I didn’t sleep. I couldn’t.

My nights were already hit with bouts of insomnia, but tonight, I didn’t want to sleep.

I wanted to stay like this with her, even if I knew it wasn’t possible. We had to leave this cabin, and soon.

Leo hadn’t made a move to come here and see her, and I didn’t think he would do it soon, considering he thought the two Sicilians were having fun with her. My insides burned with rage from the thought.

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